When you have a small pool of students, the smallest change can affect averages in a big way. We feel that this must be taken into account when looking at the 3.6 percent decrease in on-time graduation rate for Charlotte County Public Schools in 2017 compared to 2016, when the on-time graduation rate was 90.6 percent. The dropout rate for CCPS in 2017 was 9.1 percent compared to 2016’s 6.5 percent.

CCPS Division Superintendent Dr. Nancy Leonard said since the division has a small number of students enrolled, a few students can make a larger impact on outcome data.
“Last year’s graduating class was smaller than usual and we had several transfer students who were at or near 18 years of age,” Leonard said. “They enrolled but then did not continue. We called VDOE to see if we could withdraw the enrollment, but could not do so.”
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released accreditation statuses in September.

Randolph-Henry High, Central Middle, Phenix Elementary and Eureka Elementary all received the fully accredited designation, while Bacon District Elementary School (BDES) was termed as “To Be Determined,” for not having met the state benchmark for English Standards of Learning (SOL) tests, according to the VDOE. Bacon District Elementary School (BDES) received the status of “Partially Accredited: Reconstituted School” for 2017 based on Standards of Learning (SOL) test scores from the previous year, according to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE).

This is the second year in a row the school has received the “Partially Accredited: Reconstituted School” status. Division Superintendent Nancy Leonard said she was extremely proud of BDES.

One aspect of a school cannot be used to determine the worth of that school. The accreditation ratings show good signs for the division overall and it would be a boon to support the division as such. We commend the school system on the hard work it’s been committed to doing and continues to do. We hope that small changes can be for the better this time next year.